Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal. Particularly, the present invention relates to: a terminal including a touch detector; and an image pickup apparatus which include the terminal.
Description of the Related Art
A conventional information display/input apparatus in which a so-called touch panel is placed on a display such as a liquid crystal panel displays, for example, images of virtual buttons and others on a display screen. In this condition, the user can input or select information assigned to any of the virtual buttons by touching a touch panel area corresponding to a place of the virtual button displayed, with the fingertip or the pen point of a stylus pen. The surface shape of such a touch panel is almost flat, and the user input depends on visual guidance. For this reason, the user cannot distinguish mutually-adjacent buttons by a tactile feel, and essentially has difficulty in inputting data correctly. Against this background, user interfaces capable of providing tactile guidance have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-508935 discloses a user interface capable of giving the tactile guidance to the user by: expanding cavities under the surface layer; and thereby deforming specific areas of the surface.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H06-332601 discloses a ruggedness shape displaying apparatus including: multiple ruggedness shape outputting elements which are arranged between flexible sheets, and are configured to reversibly expand and contract under the control according to a signal; and terminals for controlling the respective ruggedness shape outputting elements from the outside.
The conventional techniques disclosed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-508935 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H06-332601, however, still require the user to, after operating the apparatus with the fingertip or the pen point of the stylus pen, visually check the display in order to recognize whether or not the apparatus performs the intended operation.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.